Post Thanksgiving... Post

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, I know I had entirely too many carbs. It's funny, it always seems like the holiday is all about the turkey, but realistically, unless you have a giant family and you're going to put the whole bird on the table and carve it, it's really just one of several dishes. For me, the mac and cheese is the most important. And pan gravy. Pan gravy on mac and cheese. Which I did not have for breakfast today…

Anyway, here we are to start another chapter of our journey through The New Professional Chef. With each new entry of CFRN, I've tried a different coffee shop to sit and read/blog. My current favorite is Cafe 109 in Fullerton, CA. Their dirty chai is delicious, it's quiet and relaxed, and the baristas are super nice. Also, today there's a harpist playing Christmas carols on a folk harp, a family of six playing candy land in the corner, and it's drizzling outside. It's a nice day to be in this cafe.

I checked the page views for CFRN today and found that we've had 464 views. I'm flattered and humbled, to be honest. I started this blog as a project to force me to finish something, and it's nice to see there are some along for the ride. I know I'll need the support… since we still haven't even gotten to any kind of cooking, and after skimming ahead it doesn't seem like it's happening for a few more posts… In any case, thank you for reading, and if you have any comments, please feel free! 

Ok, time to get started 

Chapter 2: Food and Kitchen Safety

To start off, we have to understand that food safety has surprisingly enough been an issue since… forever. It's not just a new fad brought on by a new health-conscious public full of hipsters (the social offspring of yuppies and hippies). In fact, there have been outbreaks of such and such foodbourne disease as old as recorded history, it's just that now we have a more functional consumer protection, including a very active media. Naturally, with industrialization comes newer, fancier forms of food safety issues, stemming from the practice of genetically engineered foods, irradiation, pollution, and the use of herbicides and pesticides (which, while banned in the U.S., are still in use in many of the countries from which we import produce). So what do we have in the fight against foodbourne illness? Well, to start we have the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects food processing plants regularly. But then we have to look at the scope of the volume of food produced in the U.S. It's pretty ridiculous. The book lovingly points out that logically, there's no way that there are enough trained inspectors available to inspect so much food. Plus, many of the inspection standards were established near the turn of the century, so they're not exactly up to date, and there are new foods emerging every day, so they have no applicable standards anyway. 

Feeling safe yet? Yes? Oh, well then, let's talk about some of our foodbourne diseases.

Salmonellosis is a disease caused by the salmonella bacteria, usually found in undercooked poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, and apparently unrefrigerated sliced fruits such as melons (yeah, holy crap, I didn't know about that last one either. What the hell??). Plus, the whole "organic" thing doesn't apply here, since studies have shown an equal chance of salmonella in "free-range" and "organically grown" chicken as those pumped out of a factory. The solution? Wash your hands a ton whenever handling poultry, as well as all surfaces, equipment, etc. Also don't undercook it. Rare steak = delicious. Rare chicken = death. 

Trichinosis is brought about by eating pork infected with trichina worm larvae, which grow and mess with your intestines and blah blah, rarely resulting in respiratory paralysis. According to the FDA, the solution is to cook your pork to an internal temperature of at least 155°F, and kill those little buggers. 

Botulism is a strange disease, caused by the consumption of poorly canned/jarred foods. Also, oils infused with garlic and shallots left at room temperature can cause problems. Botulism messes with your voluntary muscles, cranial nerves, and can lead to respiratory failure. Watch out for bulging or weird cans/jars, and avoid storing foods in their original jars or cans (Jam/preserves and such are fine I believe, just don't keep your leftover chicken-in-a-can in the can in the fridge. Just kidding… don't eat chicken in a can).

Yeah, I'm rull hungry now

Toxic Poisoning is a blanket term, meaning you should watch out for poisonous foods like certain wild mushrooms. Some can get you high (which has it's own list of issues, including, but not limited to permanent schizophrenia), some can cause vomiting, diarrhea, kidney failure, seizures, and death. Basically, make sure you know your mushrooms, where they came from, etc. Don't just pick whatever grows in the woods willy-nilly.

Bet you're super hungry now.

Reducing the Risk of Foodborne Illness

Don't worry, it's actually a pretty simple task to prevent dying a horrific spazzy death by meat-bugs or hallucinations. The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has a good Food Code, and certain certifications, permits, inspections, etc are necessary for opening/running a restaurant. These are usually posted in the window, and can be a grade or a pass. If there isn't one showing… well, you might want to ask or just reconsider where you get your pulled pork with mushrooms sandwich. Beyond becoming familiar with federal as well as state and local health codes, here are a few kinds of contamination of which the private chef should be aware:

Chemical Contamination in the Kitchen

When we say chemical, we're referring to foods treated with certain fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, steroids, hormones, as well as chemical contaminations that happen in the kitchen when we work with scratched copper saucepans, or accidentally spill a bottle of 409 into the chicken noodle soup. Keep your cleaning supplies separate, make sure your pans are well lined, and use food-grade plastics, glass, etc for storing food products.

Physical Contamination in the Kitchen

Physical contaminants are the fingers you find in your Wendy's chili. Beyond fingers, we can also include finger accouterments such as fingernails, bandages, and dirt, as well as non-finger-related items such as pieces of plastic wrap, dirt, hair, glass/wood/metal splinters, and bugs. As a chef, you've just got to be on your toes about these contaminants, since even though the government has standards (GRAS - "generally recognized as safe"), they still allow  30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams of tomato paste, pizza sauce or other sauces. Alternatively, you can have 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots, OR two or more maggots. Not both though, that would be ridiculous. It's funny that somewhere there's a grossness conversion table that lists "15 fly eggs = 1 maggot." 

Biological Contamination

The diseases and such that we listed before are examples of biological contamination. You've also got other non-listed parasites and molds that can creep in. 

Potentially Hazardous Foods

We kind of touched on this earlier, but basically there are some foods that are more likely to carry certain diseases/pathogens, e.g. chicken and salmonella. Now, we can look at these specific foods, but realistically there are all kinds of bacteria in the different foods we eat. A main key to keeping safe from impending death by diarrhea is to know the environment that causes pathogens to grow and multiply, so as to avoid their trojan-horsing their way into our bodies. 

The Three Requirements of Pathogens

Pathogens park their Fiats in three different neighborhoods. First we've got protein, which is in surprisingly almost everything, though is most abundant in meats, fish, poultry, and eggs. Second, there's water. The more moist the food, the more susceptible to pathogens it is. For example, rot vegetables have a lower moisture content and are less likely to harbor pathogens. Hard cheeses, dried, salted, and cured/preserved foods are also not hospitable to pathogens, and are thusly called "nonperishables." Lastly we've got to consider the pH of our foods (remember the pH table from Jr. High science class? Acidic on one end with a value of 0, Alkaline on the other side at a value of 14). Lemon, vinegar and sour foods are very acidic, and baking soda, cream of tartar and other bitter foods are alkaline. The danger zone is between 4 and 10 on the pH scale, so we want to keep things outside of that range.

Other factors that influence the reproduction of pathogens are temperature and time. Pathogens can live at all temperatures, but most causing foodborne illness thrive in temperatures between 40°F and 140°F, so it's best to keep products stored at temperatures lower that 40°F, which doesn't actually kill bacteria and pathogens, but does slow their growth to an acceptable level. When pathogens are nice and comfy (for example, enjoying lovely weather between 40°F and 140°F), they get frisky and reproduce like mad. There are four stages of bacterial growth… but you can look it up. The bottom line is, if you give it the chance, one bacteria could produce 72 million bacteria in 12 hours. So don't do that. 

Naturally it's important to consider how to handle food safely. Once your food arrives from your purveyor (after you've checked/counted everything, etc.), toss them vittles into their proper storage, be it a fridge, a freezer, or in dry storage. Don't forget to put new food to the back of each storage unit, so as to use the old stuff first. FIFO, First product In First product Out, is your friend. Here are the main stats:

Meat and poultry - 32 to 36°F (0 to 2°C… Europeans)

Fish and shellfish - 30 to 34°F (-1 to 1°C)

Eggs - 38 to 40°F (3 to 4°C)

Dairy products - 36 to 40°F (2 to 4°C)

Produce - 40 to 45°F (4 to 7°C)

Separate fridges for each one of these is ideal, but we're not made of money. So if necessary, you can keep all of these in the same fridge, with the warmer products (eggs, dairy, produce) at the front, and colder products (meat, poultry, fish, shellfish) at the back. Also buy a separate thermometer, since the built-in ones that come with fridges often lie. That extra degree could mean the difference between delicious delicacy and dismal death. More or less.

More to know: freezers should be kept at 32°F (0°C) or below, clean EVERYTHING very often, label all of the products (FIFO is your friend), and don't put products directly on the floor or near the walls. Raw and cooked foods should be kept separate, to avoid contamination. Also don't put the bleach and windex next to your spices and such, that's bad. 

OOOOOH here's the first bit of actual cooking stuff we should know! 

Cooling Foods Safely

I didn't realize that this was a thing, but apparently how you cool foods can affect the growth of bacteria. Makes sense, since as it cools it'll pass through the 40-140° area. Here are the steps to cool stocks, soups, and sauces:

1. Transfer to a clean container such as a stainless steel bain-marie (water bath… shame on you for not knowing French by now) or other container made of heat conductive material. Metals are the best for conducting, followed by glass. Plastic is bad, don't use that.
2. Place the container in a cold water bath (not be confused with the bain-marie, which is the vessel you use to hold the thing you're putting into a water bath. Keep up). Make sure to keep your water bath cold, adding more ice and/or draining out water and replacing it with cold water.
3. Stir the liquid as it cools. This one I didn't know, but this prevents anaerobic bacteria from getting crazy, and also helps to disperse the heat as something cools, generally speeding up the whole process.
4. Once whatever you're cooling is cooled, cover it, slap a label on it (name of contents and date) and store that shiz at the appropriate temperature. 

Reheating Foods

So when you're ready to reheat your products, they need to be heated as fast as possible to a temp of 140-145°F (60-63°C). Grab one of those instant-reading thermometers to check the temp after stirring. Otherwise it could be cold in some spots and warm in others, you know how it goes. Reheat (liquids and such) over direct heat. The book says "simply placing soups and sauces into steam table inserts is not a good method." For those of you not familiar, steam table inserts are basically those things they keep food in at Panda Express that always seem to be out of string bean chicken (seriously though). It's a metal insert with hot water under that heats the metal insert and therefore the food in it, but not enough to continue cooking. If you just put your cold food in here, it would probably just end up lukewarm, and therefore DEADLY.  Solid foods are a pain, but they can be reheated safely in the oven. Once you've heated your ish back to a safe temperature, keep it at that safe temperature (like Panda Express), and check with your instant-reading thermometer throughout the service to make sure you're in the clear. 

Weirdly enough, the book also says that you can reheat things in the microwave. Soups and stews that is. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it says to make sure and stir it. Hm. Moving on.

Thawing Foods

So, the best way to thaw frozen foods is to just take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge, that way it never gets to a high enough temperature to allow bacteria to become twitterpated. Keep it in it's wrapping, place it in a shallow container and let it do it's thing. Of course, you'll eventually run into a time crunch at which point you have a couple options. One, you can put your [well-wrapped] food in a container in the sink, and run water over it. Two you can use the microwave on the defrost setting, though that's not recommended for meats. Don't ever just put frozen food on a counter at room temperature, it's rull bad. 

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)

HACCP is used by food processors and restaurants, and recommended (though I don't know if it's required) by the FDA. It's a system based on seven principles. 

1. Assessment of hazards and risks
2. Determining the Critical Control Points (CCPs)
3. Establishing Critical limits (CLs)
4. Establishing procedures for monitoring CCPs
5. Establishing corrective action plans
6. Establishing a system for maintaining records
7. Developing a system to verify and record actions

Basically it's an outline for common sense. Know where your food can/is most likely to be contaminated (CCPs), and subsequently deal with those points in an organized fashion in order to prevent the growth of pathogens. CCPs can be a number of things, including basically most of what we've talked about already, with the addition of cross contaminations such as cutting chicken and using the cutting board to make chocolate shavings to put on your ice cream (… yech).

I didn't make this, but I think the way it absolutely doesn't roll of the tongue is endearing

Maintaining High Standards of Cleanliness

Basically, keep your shit clean. "Shit," in this case meaning your kitchen, dining room, tools, utensils, staff, everything. Unlike in Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, if there's a rat in your kitchen, you'll be out of business. Which… I guess actually happens in that movie anyway. Actually, now that I think about it, if you had a rat in the kitchen that could cook, you could totally use that as a gimmick, now that that movie exists and all. You'd probably be very successful, if you had an exceptionally talented rat. Nevermind.

Nailed it

Your restaurant should basically be as sterile as a hospital. Have you noticed how obsessive both chefs and surgeons are about hand washing? I'm sure there are more comparisons between the two, but the main thing I found in a quick google search was the Annual Surgeons vs. Chefs Pumpkin Carving Contest in Tuscon, Arizona. In this year's battle, the chefs dominated, with only one surgeon winning in the category of "best surgeon."

 

There's another section here on the importance of the uniform, but the bottom line is again cleanliness (wash your uniform, you sweaty fool). You should wear some sort of hat to avoid hairy food. The jacket is double breasted to avoid burns, and interestingly enough is unisex, since it can be buttoned from either side. Pants are a good idea, shorts are not. Aprons, as well as side towels (for picking up hot things) are a good idea. Shoes that are slip-resistant and thick enough to withstand all of the super sharp knives you'll be dropping on your feet are also encouraged. If you've got flair (or you're really sweaty) consider a neckerchief.

ASIDE: This post is exhausting, thank goodness for this harpist. She's lovely, her music is lovely, and she's making this odyssey of a chapter a lot more endearing. 

Section on pests… rats, flies etc are gross, empty your trash all the time, don't leave things out, clean everything, etc etc…

Cleaning and Sanitizing section… Ok we get it, cleanliness is close to Godliness. 

Ware Washing

I'm including this because it does actually have a standardized technique that one should know. If you've ever worked in a food-service job, you've probably seen the three-compartment sink before. I know I was very well acquainted with one while I worked at Jamba Juice in high school. For those who don't know, there are three large compartments in this sink. The first is filled with hot, soapy water (at least 120°F), in which you wash the dishes very well. The second sink is full of hot water as well, but it's just used for rinsing, so no suds here. The third sink is for sanitizing, filled with super hot water (around 170°F), or a chemical sanitizer that is diluted to be less skin-melty, into which dishes are submerged for about 30 seconds, then transferred to a drying rack. Often before sink #1 you'll see a rinsing station with a high powered hose/nozzle thing for rinsing off leftover food goo from the plates before rub-a-dub-dubbing it up. 

Miscellaneous Safety Things

Here's a list of the basics

• Let coworkers know that you are around/coming up behind them, especially in the kitchen. That's why you hear the chefs on Chopped saying "behind" all the time while running through the kitchen.
• If your pot washer has the hot water too hot, the pots will get hot. If you're brought a hot pot, don't be distraught, just express the thoughts you've got to your washer of pots, and say he ought not have brought such a hot pot.
• Knives are sharp, don't lose fingers
• If you catch something on fire… know how to put it out
• First aid is handy to know
• Be sure not to leave things on the floor so folks don't trip
• Lift with your legs, not your back (yes, that's actually straight from the book. Didn't think I'd see that in there)
• Heimlich maneuver, CPR, mouth-to-mouth are also handy. In case anyone starts choking/dying in your restaurant

Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA)

OSHA is a federal act that was started during Nixon, with the aim of helping employers and workers have a safe, healthy work place. It stipulates a lot of things, but most notably it says you have to have a first-aid kit, records must be kept of accidents and injuries requiring medical treatment, repairs and such done, and they also have inspections too, so look forward to that. Their job is to come in and say, "Is this safe? Not really." I don't believe they have the power to shut you down, like a health inspector checking for rats and such would, but they can probably fine you. They're the government, best not to piss them off.

Section on fire safety… training… fire extinguishers… emergency exits… blah blah

Ooh a section on smoking. Ok, so it's not mandated everywhere that smoking is illegal indoors, but honestly it's best just to do that. It seems to be a rule of thumb that Murphy's law applies as such: if there is something about which the customer CAN complain, the customer WILL complain about it. It's very easy for any non-smoker to complain about those smoking around them, so just do yourself a favor and don't allow it. Also, it's a fire hazard. 

And then the final little chunk about not letting your employees pound a fifth and do a few lines in the bathroom before work. 

Mkay

PHEW

Finally done with that post. That was exhausting, thank you for your patience. I've skimmed ahead, and here's what's on tap for the next couple of posts:

• Nutrition: What you think it is, and what it actually is
• Knives: All of the knives you have, and all of the ones you don't, and how to make them un-fun
• Raw Ingredients

So in the Raw Ingredients chapter, we've got basically every little thing you can cook. This chapter is 9x as long as most, so this will be split up, probably by food group. 

AND THEN FINALLY WE GET TO SOME REAL COOKING

Tune in next week for the next thrilling chapter :] 

Cheers